Community Partnership Manual Nevada STEM Advisory Council Review DRAFT October 2018 Prepared by Nevada STEM Advisory Council Community Partnership Subcommittee Community Partnership Manual October 2018 Preface The Community Partnership subcommittee of the Nevada STEM Advisory Council (NSAC) was established in March 2016. The purpose of the subcommittee is to advise the NSAC on issues pertaining to Community Partnerships. Roles and Responsibilities for the Community Partnership Subcommittee: 1. To articulate the greater benefits for learning through meaningful Community Partnerships. 2. To assist with student engagement activities through community partnerships that provide a variety of learning experiences (e.g., field trips, job shadows, mock interviews, internships). 3. Identify best community partnership practices, and successful models, for productive and meaningful community partnerships. 4. Provide roadmap for how to establish a successful community partnership. 5. To assist and strengthen communications and desired outcomes of the diverse agencies, organizations, operators, and partners committed to improving learning in Nevada. 6. Provide one voice regarding the varied opportunities for Community Partnerships to support and benefit Nevada’s educational system resulting in strengthened student performance. Relation of the Community Partnership Subcommittee in the NSAC (2017) Strategic Plan: Priority 2: Quality and Scope Goal 1: Improve quality and quantity in schools Priority 4: Engagement and Alignment Goal 2: Increase STEM education coordination i Community Partnership Manual October 2018 Contents 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Target Audience ...................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 How does the Community Partnerships Subcommittee differ from the Informal STEM Learning Environments (ISLE) Subcommittee? ............................................................................................... 1 1.3 Background ............................................................................................................................. 1 1.4 Established Community Partnership Programs in Nevada ........................................................ 2 2. THE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT AND THE IMPORTANT ROLE OF COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS..................................................................................................................................... 4 2.1 The “Who” ............................................................................................................................... 5 2.2 The “What”............................................................................................................................... 6 2.3 The “Why” ................................................................................................................................ 7 2.4 The “Where” ............................................................................................................................ 8 2.5 The “When”.............................................................................................................................. 9 2.6 The “How” ................................................................................................................................ 9 2.7 Operational Community Partnership Types ............................................................................ 10 3. AWARENESS OF ACADEMIC STANDARDS ................................................................................ 11 3.1 What are Academic Standards? ............................................................................................. 11 3.2 Why should businesses care about Academic Standards? ..................................................... 11 3.3 Correlating Academic Standards to Workforce Skills .............................................................. 12 4. HOW DO WE FORM A COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP? BUSINESS TO EDUCATION................. 14 5. HOW DO WE FORM A COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP? EDUCATION TO BUSINESS................. 16 6. PARTNERSHIP EVALUATION ...................................................................................................... 18 ii Community Partnership Manual October 2018 Nevada STEM Advisory Council Subcommittee – Community Partnerships Community Partnerships Manual 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Target Audience This document was generated to serve business representatives interested in establishing, or improving, community partnerships with formal educators (i.e., schools and classroom teachers). 1.2 How does the Community Partnerships Subcommittee differ from the Informal STEM Learning Environments (ISLE) Subcommittee? The focus of the ISLE subcommittee is how to define a successful informal learning program, and how that learning occurs. The Community Partnerships subcommittee is focused on how to establish partnerships to support learning, and how to evaluate partnerships to ensure they are meaningful. 1.3 Background Business leaders in Nevada are increasingly concerned about the lack of a highly skilled pool of workers for their companies. An unforeseen result of the former “No Child Left Behind Act” was that many schools in Nevada reduced or deleted instruction in science, not to mention technology, physical education, and the arts, to meet requirements in math and reading. Nevada's science scores lags behind the nation. Numerous national reports on Nevada have documented the lack of science and mathematics content knowledge and credential requirements of Nevada’s K-8 teachers, resulting in many Nevada teachers who do not have adequate skills for teaching science. In addition, the adoption of the Nevada Academic Content Standards for Science (NVACSS), derived from the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), by the Nevada Department of Education (Feb 2014) reflects the reality that science is so much more than just the rigid Scientific Method and “hypothesis based” science that has historically been taught in schools. The NVACSS allows for integrated teaching of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematic (STEM) disciplines with reading, and encourages the application of practices and knowledge. Given the challenges of limited qualified teachers and rising expectations, the importance of high-quality Community Partnerships has risen to a new high. The desire for partnerships that allows for the sharing of respective knowledge and the creation of authentic, fun and interesting curriculum is at a premium. Through curriculum that is supported through Community Partnerships students will be able to move through the scientific and engineering practices (that is, the activities scientists and engineers do daily) identified by the National Research Council, the National Science Teachers Association, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (NGSS, 2017). The identified practices represent skill sets such as asking questions, collecting and analyzing data, and communicating information, that are used by STEM Professionals. These skill sets are not necessarily the skill sets that traditional educators possess. The blend of specific skills when STEM professionals and classically trained educators collaborate is powerful. Collaboration is necessary to create effective 1 Community Partnership Manual October 2018 lessons for Nevada’s students, and forging effective and productive community partnerships is a critical step to facilitate the blending of the necessary skill sets. Community partnerships draw from a broad range of resources and expertise. Establishing new relationships with entities that are not familiar with the established educational system requires communication, training opportunities, and oversight. To successfully solve the complex challenge of raising student achievement an objective and systematic process should be implemented to continually assess if and how partners are improving learning in Nevada. In support of the NSAC, and with a focus on Community Partnerships, this paper will: • Begin to define the variety of community partnerships and review the critical role of community partnerships in the learning environment (Section 2) • Review how academic standards can be used to strengthen community partnerships (Section 3) • Provide suggestions for how to establish a community partnership (Sections 4 and 5) • Provide a strategy to evaluate a community partnership (Section 6) 1.4 Established Community Partnership Programs in Nevada Before community partnerships are dissected and defined (below), it is important to recognize that in Nevada there is great diversity regarding established community partnerships and partnership opportunities. This document is intentionally generic and presents community partnerships from a high-level view and serves as a primer, but is certainly not comprehensive. Community partnerships will be different in each community. Those interested in establishing community partnerships are encouraged to learn from those population centers who have organized relationships or agencies that support partnerships. There is not a “right” or “wrong” community partnership; there is not a one-size-fits-all solution. What is important is that both partners are served, their expectations are met, and Nevada students benefit from the partnership. Six such partnerships are highlighted below to provide examples